Usually if I'm catering I don't do parties of more than forty people by myself. The parties are usually done by course with individual servings. That's fun. This is the problem:
I agreed to cook for a benefit which hopes to draw three-hundred and fifty people. All I need to cook are a few kinds of chili and a couple kinds of cornbread, which is no sweat, but I have no idea how much to make. Any caterers around to help me out?

i still don't have all of the info yet, which is a problem. as far as i know, this is a one-shot benefit that's never been done before. i'm catering it with the help of a friend/co-worker of mine. i believe it's all-you-can-eat where everyone just mills around and talks and goes back for more as many times as they want.

Once you've determined if the servings are supposed to be a full meal or simply a light dinner you can calculate the proper amounts. There is also the classic commercial cookbook, Food For Fifty, which you should be able to find or get on interlibrary loan at your local library. The title is misleading; it gives instructions on how to scale recipes for very large groups, say an entire university or military base. B^)